Revenge of the Titans 4: Heart of Tartarus Part 2
by Tenkai Nankobo 101
Summary: Second of a two-part project invites you to join Gabriel and the demigods of Camp Half-Blood a final time for the siege against the Titan Prometheus. As events progress to the siege itself, Gabriel's past is revealed bit by bit until he finally fights it.
1. Title and Table of Contents

Revenge of the Titans

The Heart of Tartarus

Part II

By

Christopher Cleveland

Table of Contents

Annabeth: Falling into Tartarus and fighting my enemy simultaneously (not advised)

Gabriel: Following the Titan and the Three Tests at the Heart of Tartarus

Annabeth: Escaping Tartarus as Gabriel finally took his revenge

Gabriel: Avenging my family at last and the destruction of the Heart of Tartarus

Thalia: Searching for Gabriel after the siege's end

Nico: Finding Gabriel at the edge of Tartarus, just barely clinging to life

Percy: Zeus' offer to Gabriel, a brief reunion, and saying goodbye

Thalia: Leading the service dedicated to Gabriel

Nico: Leaving Camp Half-Blood to do some work for my Dad and stepmother

Annabeth: Gabriel returns to me briefly in an Iris-message

Percy: Looking at the horizon to the new day and the new age of gods and men


	2. Annabeth: Falling into Tartarus

Annabeth: Falling into Tartarus and fighting my enemy simultaneously (not advised)

Before I had even known what the hell was happening, I was in the clutches of Prometheus like a mouse clutched by an hawk. The only difference is, the thing the damned Titan was clutching me as was a winged demon and I still had hope of escape whereas a mouse under the grip of a hawk had no hope. Whether it was through luck or just sheer desperation, I remembered that I had my knife in my back pocket and if I managed to reach it then I might stand a chance of escape. Only problem once I escaped his grasp would be how the hell to get back up since I couldn't see any pursuers from where I was.

I figured that if there was anyone pursuing me, they could catch me before I even needed to find a way to hold on until they arrived. However, thanks to my training, I was a good rock-climber and could hold out until someone came since when you do the math, it's faster falling down than climbing up. So I managed to slither my hand down to my waist where my knife was and just barely avoided having it slip from my hand and fall ahead of us into the abyss below. After that I slither my hands and arms out of the grasp of Prometheus before lunging back and making the plunge that would free me if it was done right.

Sure enough, I managed to get a tendon and make Prometheus roar with pain as he let me go. I somehow managed to calculate the amount of air flowing beneath me because I could somehow keep myself much farther down than Prometheus as we descended down to Tartarus. But as we continued our fall, Prometheus began to swoop forward and under me so that he could grab me with one of his big hands again. _Oh shit, this time I know I'm not going to get a lucky chance to make him let go if he gets me again _I thought to myself.

So remembering those movies Thalia used to watch about skydiving before she started fearing heights, I poked my belly out in the style of a skydiver and was immediately lifted out of his reach. It was just barely out of those claws which got a little of my clothing but enough for a major rip. Now my problem was safely landing on some grabbing rocks at this momentum that was only slowed a little. Then it occurred to me that my knife was strong enough to penetrate rock and I could use it to halt my fall if I stabbed just deeply enough.

I moved toward the walls and was about to stab the rock just before he grabbed me again below the line of my breasts. Luckily, I had my knife out yet again and I stabbed his hand again to free myself. But this time, he didn't let go easy and I had to keep stabbing until I found a cartilage link in his finger that if stabbed could cause enough pain in his finger for him to let me go. He did precisely that when I struck the tendon I had targeted and attempted to slow myself unto the rock before he slapped my legs and made me slam my face into a nice, round piece of rock and spin three hundred and sixty degrees at least seven times.

That was before I slammed onto his chest and then the perfect idea hit me: to stab him here until I had reached his heart. It was now possible I could potentially end this crisis with one swift stroke of my blade if I aimed just right. But I had no time to aim so I just starting randomly stabbing, ichor gushing out at every single one like regular blood. I was careful not to get any on my since it would have the same effect as acid on my skin if it got on me.

Now don't worry, only Titans' blood does that not the blood of Olympian gods but that's besides the point. Then I decided to move for his brain since I figured I'd have an easier time doing that and it was a good thing too since I dodged him bringing down a hand to swat me and grab me again. Carefully and with the skill of a fox, I moved up his neck, over his chin, across his mouth although I barely avoided being chomped in half, and arrived at a spot I designated as the best stop just barely above his nose and between his eyes. That was when his hand moved too fast for me to dodge it and I was smashed under it for a few seconds and grabbed so that I couldn't escape again.

Or so I thought until it turned out there was just one more option: stab into the palm of Prometheus. Only problem with that option is I ran the risk of cutting myself in the process but it was a chance I knew I had to take. "Hmm, you are more of a fight than I had anticipated but it makes little difference to me. Especially since your uncle follows down here just as I anticipated although I hoped for your boyfriend," Prometheus said to me.

Sure enough, I saw Gabriel following after me with something tied around him to keep him from being lost once he fell in. I realized later on that it was the original Orion's Belt that he wore across his waist and was using as rope for his descent into Tartarus with us. Prometheus shot at him with a couple blasts of fire but Gabriel tugged his way through them all while simultaneously protecting the belt from Prometheus' magic which could potentially undo it. "Damn, neither he nor Thalia quit when they get fighting," Prometheus said to me.

"What do you mean about Thalia?" I asked. "Oh that's easy to explain: she challenged me to a fight and nearly lost but her relentlessness helped her gain the victory. She did not even have a plan for fighting me except to distract me from the Cyclopes that were my original target and your aid," he answered. I couldn't believe Thalia would do that willingly; did she?  
>I asked Prometheus precisely that and he said that it was more than likely a combination of willingness to do it as well as Percy giving her a cue to do so. What the <em>hell<em>? Seaweed Brain let Thalia endanger herself fighting against Prometheus _alone _just so he could win a strategic victory! I guess I should admit that the only reason I am angry is because it was Thalia but then I realized it was strategically necessary and Thalia was the only in Gabriel's absence who could even stand up to him.

Plus if we were to survive and Gabe left after the Camp was secured, she'd be the only one to brag that she fought him and lived to tell about it. But it wasn't really a fight so much as avoiding getting her ass handed to her by a rogue Titan. Okay that was mean but after hearing about how Gabriel tore Tethys' head off with his bare hands, I feel like everything else that wasn't done by him is insignificant. This was no time to be thinking about that but it still gnawed at my mind: the sheer power Gabriel would have had to do that could only come from his darkest emotions.

I'd hate to see him enraged, especially if he could kill gods with his rage and enough physical strength. Truthfully, I would rather be here fighting Prometheus right now but that was before he decided to do something entirely different. He grabbed me then flipped back over and dived down at a faster than before. "Before we reach Tartarus answer me this question: how does a child of Athena fight fear itself?" he asked.


	3. Gabriel: Following Prometheus & 3 tests

Gabriel: Following the Titan and the Three Tests at the Heart of Tartarus

Despite throwing several portions of rock that he carved out of the walls at me, Prometheus didn't throw nearly as many as I anticipated. But that wasn't exactly the biggest issue when we were quickly reaching the Underworld and the dead watched as we traveled into the skies of Tartarus and towards the pit where the Heart was located at. The biggest issue was keeping the Furies from cutting the belt and sending me spiraling to my death in the fires of torment by simply calling on some of the power of the Sky Sword for a lightning bolt here or a gust of wind there. Nonetheless, all three converged on me and before I knew it, I was fighting for my life against the three guardians of Tartarus but luckily, I had some of my father's skill of telekinesis immediately available to use against them.

After throwing the Furies off with relative ease, I continued to follow Prometheus until he glided into the Pit where the Titans used to be trapped before Khronos (as the deity killed by Percy turned out to be) rebelled against Zeus. Then I made it so that the belt could launch me and itself into the pit and continue following Prometheus even deeper than I had ever been before. "You follow me to your death Gabriel but perhaps your mother would like a few words with you before you die!" Prometheus taunted. That made me remember what Little Mary had said when I freed her from Hyperion's prison just the other day.

My mother was down here and I had to ask myself if she was even sane after nearly eighteen years trapped here. Was it even possible to remain sane in the most insane the place in all Creation itself? Were the extremities on her mind enough to make her kill me if Prometheus ordered her to? The sad thing was that I could only find out by going into the Heart of Tartarus where only she and my father had been sent around the time I was one or two.

It was a wonder to know she had even survived all these years but if she were still sane… Now that would be an even more amazing wonder than knowing she survived. Long had been the fall into the pit and longer still was the descent to the very bottom of it where all the hells of the universe would reside in one place. I was headed for the center of all evil in the dominion of both gods and mortals, man and woman, peace and war; the place that was (as Dante would have put it) farthest place in all of Creation from the divine Olympian Light.

The place that was also the residence of the deity also called Tartarus who had created evil long ago. I knew I was approaching the Heart when I saw an orange-red light emanate from the bottom of the tunnel and it grew bigger as I inched rapidly forward into it. And I fell first not into fire but into a frozen wasteland like that depicted for the bottom of Dante's Inferno. The ice was not covered with the heads and bodies of those frozen in it and I guessed that was because any souls who were sent here, even the ones of the Titans, would be overcome with madness and then obliterated if they were sent here.

It's funny to think that it's easier for one of the dead to go mad than it is for one of the living. I just hoped that I would have proof of that actually being true when I got out of here. At first, nothing happened but I did see Prometheus fly over a gate that probably led into the rest of the Heart so I followed him there. And just when I was wondering how to get in, a beam shot from the glass circle in the middle of the gate and I barely had enough time to put up my left arm in defense of myself like it was always good for.

The mark extended from just past my elbow to nearly my shoulder when I decided to reflect the power and destroy the circle of glass. It worked like a charm and the whole beam turned from its orange, flaming look to a golden, precise beam of deflected energy that not only destroyed the glass but also caused the gates to open. Instead of any direction toward or opposite me, the doors each went horizontal and dug into the rock. Prometheus laughed as soon as I walked to and through the opening and congratulated me for completing the first and simplest test of the three in the very heart of Hell itself.

"Oh don't bother with trying to name this evil for it is beyond the comprehension of your mortal mind. Hell is but a word compared to what I could summon from the source of all this power! And what I was on the surface can be amplified as many times as I wish with the disembodied power of Tartarus himself. When I am finished with you, I shall return to the mortal world with this power and destroy the Olympians; not even your mighty brother Zeus will stand a chance against me," Prometheus taunted.

"I'll be the judge of that Prometheus, because I'm still alive," I replied. "Oh but how long can that remain in this place before your mind is eaten completely alive by the life that resides in this deathly place?" Prometheus asked. Then I heard the voice of a woman calling my name and asking if it was me she saw. A shiver came down my spine for I knew that was the voice of my mother just from the fat it wasn't Annabeth's voice.

"Mom, where are you?" I asked. "Look behind you and you will see me, see what I have become," the voice answered. Slowly, as if I thought Prometheus was merely imitating her, I turned behind me and sure enough, I saw a woman older than me chained in the same way Little Mary had been with barely enough cloth to cover her private parts. She also had plenty of scars from head to toe that seemed to be symbolic of her time in this curse place.

"Hello Gabriel, we meet at last for the first time in nearly twenty years. Look at you, as I had told your father, you have become truly a man," she said to me. "Mother, I'm going to free you from this place!" I said, running over to her to try and break the chains. "The only way you can free me is if you confront your father and destroy him," she said.

"What? He's here with you, I thought he would have escaped by now?" I asked. "No one escapes from this place, no even immortals as powerful as him. Kill him and you free me but be warned: Prometheus will fuel him with the strength of your fear and guilt. Overcome your fears and your guilt for what has happened to you and you will have more than enough power to overcome your father," she explained as he began to materialize from one of the corpses that surrounded us in what appeared to be a battlefield.

When he completed his materialization, I knew it was him from what I remembered of what he looked like as well as how he was described to me by Eos and Hestia. "Hello my son, so glad you could come down here with enough fear and guilt for me to use their amplified power to supply me with strength as I destroy you. It'll be just as easy as it was to create you now that you have thirteen years of guilt and twelve years of fear to fuel me," Cronus greeted me. "I _will _confront my fears father and I _will _destroy you if that's indeed what it'll take to rescue my mom," I told him.

"Doubtful, for even if you kill me, Prometheus will find a way to make you lose her anyway. That is why I chose him for my plan to destroy both of the Olympian worlds," Cronus said to me. I hesitated when he said both worlds but I immediately launched an aggressive attack on him before he could sow anymore conflict into me. At first, nothing more than a display of equaled strength was shown by both of us and I had no idea how long it went on since there was no sense of time down here.

Then Cronus used a pulse of telekinesis to throw me down to the ground before teleporting so that he was just above me. He then placed a foot on my stomach and attempted to squash my innards to oblivion. Instead of that though, I stabbed him in the leg with the Sky Sword and managed to get him off me long enough for me to stand up again. "You will pay for that dearly but just so you know, it's always a pleasure to take a brave man's life," Cronus said.

"Even when it's your own son you're trying to kill?" I asked. "_Especially _if it's my own son because it was my own son who overthrew me and nearly cast me into this place! It was my son who put Atlas to the Heavens until his recent release and death at Mount Orthys. And it is my own son who stands against me now and is threatening to destroy all that I have attempted to create _for him_!" Cronus answered.

"What are you trying to create beside a world so afraid of me that they don't even think about me? Why would I want to live in a world where I was the almighty ruler of the universe only through sheer force and brutality?" I asked. "You're as stubborn as your brothers and sisters but not to worry, I'll get to them soon enough," Cronus told me. "That's not going to happen because you can't escape without my power and the only way to obtain it is to kill me," I said to him.

"That's just the way I like it too and I _will _reclaim my rightful place as ruler of the universe. My path will be paved by the sins and fears of man while yours, Gabriel, will be the bedrock of it all. Soon, all that is 'good' shall be banished to Chaos forever!" Cronus declared with an intensity like no other. For a moment, I had nothing to say as he waved the recovered sword Backbiter like he had already won the battle.

Then I realized something that I never knew in my life: if I couldn't forgive myself, I could be forgiven by the souls of those in my family who died by Prometheus' hand. Quickly, I chanted a spell that hopefully would call them since some of them were actually in Tartarus from what I heard of them and they in turn could call the rest to my aid. Then I said aloud to him that he couldn't do that just yet and say that I remembered the power to use the souls of those of my past to free myself from my fears and guilt. "Uncle, Aunt, Cousins, Grandmother, Grandfather, Ancestors, absolve me!" I shouted and just then the souls of all those who were related to my mother and had died shot through and out of me.

They made their way to Cronus and each of them shot him hard like a machine gun bullet. Each time they hit him, I saw that his power shrunk and shrunk until at last, none of it was related to my fear and guilt. I had at last overcome what had haunted me the most in my past and now I was ready to kill the man who represented it all. "Wait, that power; we can use it together!" he said.

I continued toward him with the Sky Sword in spite of a brief hesitation this gave me. "You and I, father and son, just think of what we could achieve!" he said. "I think I'll pass on that one," I told him. "But I can reunite you with Eos and Little Mary and together, we will rule the universe!" he begged in a last ditch effort to survive.

"It's not going to happen Cronus and what's more, I will send you into oblivion for all you've done," I hissed at him. Then I stabbed him in the space that was half up the throat and half on the chest, cutting several arteries, including a vital connection to the heart. When I took the sword back out, he fell on his back instantly. The flash of light that signified his death washed over the entire area and even burned into my mother's chains enough to free her.

She fell and although I was kind of embarrassed that she did, I figured it wasn't as painful as some of the things she went through while here with my father. Anyway, I lifted her up although she didn't help any and hugged her the moment I knew she wasn't going to collapse once standing up. "Sorry son, I haven't walked in these feet since you were a very little kid," she said to me. "Believe me, I'd rather be with you not walking than be without you whether you could or couldn't," I told her.

"How sentimental especially when you consider she never will walk again," Prometheus said. And just like that he took my mother from me again and almost completely threw her off a cliff that Annabeth was already holding on to for dear life. I ran to both of them and caught each of them in one arm. But now I was between a rock and a hard place though I didn't want to admit it at the time.

"Choose your sacrifice Gabriel for the one who dies shall destroy the deity known as Tartarus. That bright light below is the Heart itself and only the soul of a freshly dead demigod or associate of the gods can destroy it," Prometheus said. "Gabriel, you have to save this girl next to me or else Prometheus will have won," my mother said. Annabeth said nothing and watched as the events transpired according to Prometheus' sick design.

"No, I'm not losing you again! I'm losing neither of you!" I shouted to her. "What can you do? You can't lift us both up," my mother asked.

I told her I could but I wasn't fooling anybody right then, not even myself no matter how much I would have wanted to deny it. "Gabriel, someone else loves this girl. I can tell by the way her expression looks because it was the same way I used to look at your father before I knew he was the evil king of the Titans," my mother told me. "What is your point mother?" I asked her.

"You have to get her back to her man or else you won't be the hero this man probably believes you to be. But you do have to destroy the Heart of Tartarus so I won't make you choose," my mother answered. "No, I'm not losing you again!" I repeated. "You never lost me Gabriel, I lost you when I was flung into Tartarus with your father," my mother told me.

Before I could ask her what she meant, she let go of my hand and began the plunge into the Heart itself. I screamed and cried more than I had in a long time after I took my free arm and exerted my strength into pulling Annabeth up. Though I felt Annabeth's arms wrap around me and her head rest against mine before she pulled mine to her breasts, there was no comfort for that deep pain at my mother's sacrifice. And it certainly made me feel no better when I saw the orange-red fire of Tartarus clash with my mother's bluish-white flames before dying with a rumble felt beneath our feet as well as a final, fiery explosion from below the ledge of the cliff.

"I'm sorry Gabriel, I wish I could have done something to help," Annabeth said to me. "You couldn't have done much even if you could do anything," I told her. Then I picked her up and took a bit of a walk back to Orion's belt. It was after that little walk that I was able to overcome my grief long enough to fulfill my true destiny.


	4. Annabeth: Escaping Tartarus

Annabeth: Escaping Tartarus as Gabriel finally took his revenge

After arriving back at the only means of escaping this forsaken place, Gabriel did something I never would have expected. He tied my waist to the belt and yanked three times, which I was guessing was the signal for me to ascend. "What the hell are you doing?" I asked. "Finishing some unfinished business on the part of Prometheus and believe me, it's better than letting him escape with anything," he answered.

"Wait, you can forget him Gabriel! Once we escape from here, he's trapped for eternity," I told him. I knew that had to be true because Cronus would certainly have escaped by now if he had found a way to do so. If Cronus couldn't escape then how would Prometheus be able to unless his ability with premonition somehow gave him an advantage over Cronus?

"This was always my destiny Annabeth, to kill Prometheus for what he did to my family. Titans tend to overestimate themselves and though he himself isn't one, Khronos the god of time serves as an example of what I mean. No, this time I am not letting him slip from me because he _must _pay," Gabriel said to me. "But he will be trapped here as your father was when he took your mother here, there's no sense in continuing the fight when you've already won!" I said to him.

"The Olympians have won but not me. I still have a personal battle to fight before I die. By the way Annabeth, call me 'Uncle Gabe'; I like the sound of it more than I like 'Gabriel'," Gabriel replied. Then I was yanked up into the upper world and was ascending faster than I could react. I knew no signal that would stop the ascent so I watched helplessly as Gabriel turned his sword and focus back to Prometheus.

Sad as it is to confess it, I never saw him again on this Earth after that little trip to Tartarus. In fact, that was probably the most difficult secret I have ever had to confess in my life. I would see him again sure but at the time, I didn't know that so I thought he was going to die or at least be trapped in Tartarus for gods know how long. Before there was only the walls of the passage that had brought me there, I saw the beginning moves of the duel that would seal their fates and then I saw only the tunnels where I had Prometheus.

To think I would hold my own against a Titan that nearly killed Thalia, a daughter of Zeus, would have been unimagined. Especially when he threw at least six large spiders my way when we arrived at the Heart of Tartarus. While Gabriel had three tests, mine had been on how a child of Athena fights fear itself and that had been put to me in the form of spiders. So when I got to the top and Percy was the first man I saw when I returned, I untied myself quickly and jumped into his arms.

I was flooding his face with kisses and whispers that I loved him. He would whisper back that he loved me and that was before Chiron raised an eyebrow to us and everyone in the camp that saw couldn't keep from smirking. "If you two are finished, you might want to turn around and notice that the crack has practically disappeared already," Chiron said. To my surprise, he was telling the truth but that wasn't the only thing I noticed.

The damage to the Camp, including what had been caused in Thalia's fight with Prometheus, had been fully repaired and dinner plates were being set at the dining pavilion. "Wait, don't you even want to devote any time to setting up a search party for Gabriel? I mean, there is still a chance we can save him although he's down in Tartarus," I asked. "Let Fate decide that one for us but in the meantime, eat," Chiron answered.


	5. Gabriel: Revenge complete & destruction

Gabriel: Avenging my family at last and the destruction of the Heart of Tartarus

Prometheus and I dueled fiercely and for a long time after I made sure that Annabeth had left Tartarus on Orion's Belt. I frequently called on the powers of the Sky Sword in order to stop him from calling upon massive amounts of telekinetic energy for the purpose of crushing me. It was a good thing I was that smart too since he would collect the energy then amplify it with the slowly dying powers of Tartarus. "It doesn't seem so infinite now that my mother's given herself to destroying the Heart now does it?" I asked him.

"Mock me while you can still enjoy it mortal for I have only to wait a little longer before you no longer even laugh," Prometheus answered. I asked him what he meant and he began to laugh at how "ignorant" I was. "You see Gabriel, as the Heart has been destroyed by your mother's sacrifice, it is only a matter of time before this whole realm collapses. I only have to divert you until the orange skies of the Heart begin to form large black holes in it that symbolize this place's fall into Oblivion and us with it if my plan for destroying you works," he explained.

Then I understood all at once: he didn't care if he lived or died now. He just wanted to drag me along for the ride if he was going to be destroying in Oblivion. I knew in the snap of a finger that I had to defeat him before it was too late to escape. "Let's make a pact Prometheus: if I win, you channel your power to create an escape portal for me upon your death and if you win, we both die in Oblivion.

"Either way you die but one option allows you to take me with you," I explained, thinking it up on the fly. He smiled and I could tell that though he didn't like the idea of dying a hell of a lot more than I didn't, he liked the fact he had a chance to take me with him. So we continued fighting ferociously, myself wielding the Sky Sword and Prometheus wielding the Black Sword of the Night. Of course, it was empty of power since we managed to undo the blessing but it was still a deadly weapon to fight against all the same.

Long was the battle and hard was it fought, the black holes of Oblivion were becoming massive and some had already connected. Then I made a series of moves that Prometheus would never have anticipated since he never anticipated quick-thinking. I made a series of quick and almost ineffective moves save for the fact that they lowered his guard enough for me to conduct the next phase of the plan: disarm him. Knowing what would happen if I kept going, I decided to charge up the Sky Sword so I could finish off the Black Sword of the Night with one stroke to it.

It was a long charge of power but I knew what I was doing because for one thing, I had used weapons like the Sky Sword before when I was younger. I had to recover the Blade of Zeus and the only way to do so was to trust in the powers of Erebus since Hades had hidden them in a place only darkness could reach: Hecate's Cave of Nightmares. Don't worry, I'll tell about that one some other time but right now, that's not so important. What was important was fighting Prometheus and defeating him before Oblivion occurred for both of us as well as the Heart of Tartarus.

Then, as though reading my thoughts, the Sky Sword finished charging and took my best swing so that Prometheus _had _to deflect the oncoming attack and fall into my plan. For a brief moment, the light on the Sky Sword transferred to the blade of the Black Sword and was so bright, I couldn't see in front of me. Then a fiery explosion repelled us both away from each other but I was back on my feet more quickly than Prometheus was. In fact, I had run around him and placed the Sky Sword so that the back of his neck touched it when he was on his knees.

Sure enough, he backed into the blade like I anticipated and stopped there. "Well done Gabriel Johnson, you have defeated me. But I think I would like to add one additional treat to the sheer delight of having lost and devoted my powers to creating a portal for you upon my death: your future," Prometheus said. "I know you can see the future, so give me the honest and clean version," I told him.

"Right to the point, I like that in a man, because this is not by any means clean nor even pleasant though it will start that way. You will escape this place now with my head in one hand and the Sky Sword in the other. However, you will not return with your mortal essence; you shall become a god as you have always feared and everything after that shall be fraught with pain. Your future is one that spirals toward Oblivion though here it will not be.

"A long time ago, Cronus, myself, and the mother of the Titans herself saw a possibility for eliminating the Olympians that the others were either to arrogant, too blind, or too stupid to exploit. As you know, Gaea created the Gigantes for the sole purpose of restoring the Titans to rule of the universe," Prometheus explained. Abruptly, I pointed out that they were some of the first deities I learned about when I studied under Eos. "Very good, and you will also remember from your lessons that only through a union with a mortal (in that case, Hercules) could the gods hope to stand any chance of defeating the Gigantes.

"When Zeus imprisoned them, he cursed them never to be released unless a soul of pure light and meant for Elysium was to destroy the Heart of Tartarus. Your mother was that pure soul and her sacrifice means the return of the Gigantes. The gods will fall now that they are free for they are much stronger than ever before. Combining forces with the demigods alone will not be enough to stop the Gigantes now and we knew that when Gaea, Cronus, and I agreed to form a confidential triumvirate that was hell-bent on unleashing the Gigantes in the likely event that the Titans failed.

"My ability to see the future guided us out of nearly every single misstep. Besides your stay with the Olympians and Cronus' banishment to this place, everything has proceeded as planned. But you know, I can only predict the future and as you know, those who can predict the future are _never _allowed to act directly to intervene. Which means there is still hope for the gods and the mortals against the Gigantes but if you are to help them anyway, you'll have to kill me and use my power to form a portal," he finished.

Grasping the cold hilt of the Sky Sword very tightly, I felt invincible. I knew that my lifelong goal of destroying the Titan Prometheus was coming to end. There was no need to rush it and I most certainly did not rush as I slowly raised the sword for the stroke that would take off Prometheus' head. I held it there for what seemed to be hours and I could barely contain the excitement of my destiny at last being achieved.

Then I could hold it no longer and swung down with all the force in my body. Prometheus' head flew off his neck and rolled away from one of his knees briefly. While it lied there, the rest of his body began to explode with grey fire that shot all the way back to the start of the Heart of Tartarus and created a portal (as promised) while Oblivion was closer and closer to reality. I grabbed Prometheus' head and made a dash for it, seeing how Oblivion was eating away at the rocks of the Heart and eating at the very essence. A couple of times, a few shots from Oblivion hit me and some of my mortal essence was lost in the blasts but it didn't matter.

I was close to the portal now and I had nearly lost all of my mortal essence, Oblivion all around me now and annihilation certain. But with all the speed and stamina of the gods, I kept going until at last, I reached the portal and escaped the Heart of Tartarus before the rest of it was obliterated from existence. For a brief while, I saw only light as the portal was transporting me to the edge of the normal Tartarus bounds. It was during that time that I was overwhelmed by more pain than I had ever known in my life and I knew it was because that my mortal essence had been wrenched from my body by the hands of Oblivion with the only chance of regaining them being in becoming a god then being made a mortal again.

Then I knew where I was when the light ended: I was back in good old Tartarus but it was not the same now that the Heart, the center of all evil and the domain of the god himself, had been destroyed through my mother's sacrifice. My one true hope was that she could find some measure of peace in the Oblivion that she was now in. If what they said was true and consciousness did not exist in Oblivion nor did any Purgatory, Hell, or Paradise that Dante could describe… I had the feeling that she was fine but at the same time, was overcome by a sense of failure due to the failure to save her.

After all, I was killing gods before I was halfway through my adolescence, traversed more than one plane of existence in search of a traitor of Olympus to bring them to justice, and had even sacrificed all chances at a normal life when Hera came and put me in a form of bondage as punishment for leaving her during one of my missions. I had even seen magic used for evil so phenomenal it would curdle my blood to even get started on the details and had beaten it mostly with sheer strength of mind and matter combined with a natural ingenuity that was characteristic of Cronus' children whether god or mortal or centaur. And now, I was confronting death for the first time of my life but it wasn't anything like what a mortal might experience in death.

Instead, what I realized I was going to experience was the first day of my eternal death. I had never wanted to become a god and yet I had become one regardless of what I had specifically stated to Zeus himself. Slowly, I lifted my arms to see that they had turned completely gold as did my legs and everything between a little bit above and my feet. What remained of my mortal flesh was mostly covered in wounds that bleed until the gold burned the blood to the last cell.

Believe me, that was not the worst part about this whole thing: the worst part was that my blood was being burned everywhere that I had been wounded. Therefore, my wounds were turning to gold and I knew that the fresher skin, though ash-stained, would be gone after that. I felt a burn in my eyes that Zeus said was normal of having the sight of a god so I had a feeling that my eyes were already golden as well. Then there was a tremendous pain in my abdomen and I placed my arm across before limping up the cave of Tartarus and back to the safer parts of the Underworld.

The Sky Sword was slowly becoming heavy for me until I was dragging it behind my back and the only reason I was holding onto was because I knew I'd lose it if I didn't. But when I could go no further, I placed the Sky Sword on one side of me and Prometheus' head on the other before turning around and squatting onto the floor of Tartarus. I noticed that what remained of my chest and shoulders were gone as were my ears and most of my neck. But I figured I could settle down and die peacefully before becoming a god as foretold.


	6. Thalia: Launching a search for Gabriel

Thalia: Starting a search for Gabriel after the siege's end

Now let me get something straight for the record: cleanup was easy and fun considering that the war had been harsh on us all. Okay, that's out of the way, on to the point of this entry which is to explain my next assignment. I was just settling in my cabin, figuring that I needed to be alone after nearly getting my ass whooped by Prometheus in battle when Artemis decided it was a good time to give me a new assignment to go with the Hunters on. This is where I must admit that the only thing I don't like about being lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis is that you never get any rest from a long hunt before you're assigned another.

But this assignment was one I was willing to do immediately were it not for the fact that I _needed _to recuperate before I could do anything. The assignment was to find Gabriel as soon as was possible for according to Artemis, the gods would need him on Olympus. As to why they would need him after they made him work his ass off for them and even journeyed to the Heart of Tartarus itself for the daughter of Athena, I truly did not know nor would dare to inquire about. Artemis said she would be waiting for us in the morning and expected us to be ready the moment she came to our cabins for the search to find the demigod son of Kronos.

After Artemis told me about the new assignment, Eos appeared before me and made me vow on the River Styx that I would do everything in my power to find Gabriel. They had kissed in case Gabriel didn't come back but it wasn't enough for her to have the possibility that he return as great as the possibility that he not return to this world. "Find him Thalia, the gods and demigods of this universe will be needing his new power when the time comes. 'When the time comes', such a pun on what Zeus plans to turn him into," she said before she made to disappear.

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" I asked. I know I probably should not have asked since even the whole of Olympus was scouring the Earth for him but I had to. And as though she were reading my thoughts she answered, "It's perfectly alright to ask but let me put it this way: with Kronos dead, _somebody _has to be the God of Time." Then she left but her message was most amazing: Gabriel, the new god of time itself!

That was incredibly hard to imagine and now I knew I had to find him before anything bad could. I slept that whole night and dreamed only of Gabriel and what could have happened to him down there. At one point, I dreamed he had been obliterated along with Prometheus in the Heart of Tartarus. In another dream, I dreamed he escaped and had simply went off to disappear from the gods forever. And in yet another, I saw him crawling across some dark cavern while most of his body was covered in gold except from his head.

This one was the most clear version of them all and I knew that this was definitely the place where we had to be looking for him. The only problem was: where in all that the Olympians created would such a place as that exist? Artemis ordered us to scatter in four directions since there were thirty-six of us and four teams of nine would cover more ground than one group of four times that many. It went this way for hours with no sign of even a lead as to his whereabouts, never mind Gabriel himself.

Then I prayed to every god I could remember off the tip of my tongue, even Hades, for a clue at least. The next day, Nico was at the door of my cabin and said he had been waiting for a couple of hours. "I know where he is and I can take you there if you'll just keep close to me. Percy and Annabeth have already decided to come," he said before we left for Gabriel's true location which I was surprised to see and enter.


	7. Nico: Finding Gabe & his transformation

Nico: Finding Gabriel at the edge of Tartarus and his metamorphosis

Taking Thalia to the Underworld, even I was not expecting what I would see next. First, I found her and that was the only expected part of this whole thing considering the rest of what happened. At my father's request, I had brought her and now we were going to Tartarus to find Gabriel where he was still crawling for life. "I feel him slipping away from life and closing in on residence in the Underworld," my Dad said to him.

"Take the chariot, you'll reach him faster," replied Persephone. Hades nodded and we boarded the chariot that was driven by a few hellhounds that though not as big as Mrs. O'Leary were not to be trifled with. He whipped them until they were going top speed and we skipped over Elysium in the snap of a finger, flew over the entire Asphodel Fields, and concluded our little trip at the mouth of Tartarus. From there, the Furies guided us to where they saw (and I'm quoting here) "a man slowly turning into gold crawling along the burning coals on the floor".

They took us to where he was after that and Thalia was the first to run up to him and see if he was all right. I followed and saw that if anything, Gabriel was _far _from all right considering that what remained of his mortal essence was mostly wounded or at least slightly cooked. "Gabriel, what the hell did you do to yourself down there to come back looking like this and carrying the head of Prometheus and the Sky Sword with you?" Thalia asked. "Call… me… Uncle Gabe… would you… please?" Gabriel answered.

I chuckled to myself since Gabriel had previously rejected the title of 'uncle' so to think that he would be telling us to call him that was amusing. The situation wasn't I admit but the fact he was telling us to call him Uncle Gabe was. "Uncle Gabe, please come back to us? I know you can do it if you just try, please try!" Thalia begged.

"It's… over," Gabriel said to her. "No, it isn't over because we still need you!" Thalia yelled at him. "Is… the Camp… safe? Are… Annabeth and… Percy… reunited?" Gabriel asked. Thalia nodded and told her that the Camp was safe _and _that Annabeth and Percy had been reunited once again before we were stunned by his answer.

"Then… it's over," he said. "No Uncle Gabe, you don't know what you're saying," Thalia replied. "Oh… but I… do. All my life… the gods trained me… for one… thing: protecting… others," he began, coughing up some blood as he said it. "He speaks the truth for when he was with Helios and Selene, they taught him his skills but it was Hestia who told him he should use it for humble purposes he's used it for," my Dad said to us. "Don't speak Gabriel, we'll get you to a medic who can make you feel better and a little less deluded," Thalia said.

"No… there is… no… point… in that. Soon, my… mortal… essence will… burn… out… and… my… mortal… heart will… give out… completely," he said to her. "Husband, I think you should tell them that no place in the Underworld will be housing this one anytime soon," Persephone said to Hades in a whispery tone. "Nico, Thalia, perhaps you two should know that when Gabriel's mortal essence burn out and his heart gives way, he'll resurrect as a god," Hades explained to us.

We then noticed that not much remained except a chunk of Uncle Gabriel's forehead and though Hades called Thalia away from him, she would not leave him to rot as she thought he would be doing. It was at that point that I decided to just simply wrench her off him although I was the son of a god that was inferior to her father. She put up a struggle but not quite the struggle I was anticipating since she came with me after which my dad and my stepmother covered our eyes before covering their own. "Let's put it this way, you might not want to be looking directly at the light of his transformation as it happens," my dad said to me.

Our hearts began to increase in speed in anticipation of this fateful event of Gabriel's transformation. "We gods have never experienced this sort of thing, even with Heracles' metamorphosis into the constellation," Hades said. I guess that was meant to explain why he and Persephone covered their eyes as well and turned us so that their backs faced Gabriel as the last of his mortal essence burned out and he drew his last breath. But before that happened, we heard him say that he was so glad to see us one last time as well as kiss Eos again before this happened.

For a few seconds, there was nothing but pure darkness since Hades and Persephone cloaked us in a shroud of darkness. Then suddenly, we started seeing forks of light that pierced slightly through the cloak and burned their way into the ground beside our feet. I asked Thalia if she was seeing this too and she said she was but what none of us were seeing was that Gabriel's color began to return to him. Not only that but we also missed out on the fact that he became more muscular and masculine looking than any bodybuilder we had seen on TV with a dick to match (I don't know why I mentioned that besides the fact I thought maybe some girls might read this entry and wonder what it'd be like to share Gabriel's bed if I did mention it).

When the light passed over us, we were surprised to find bits of burnt flesh floating all around us. I recognized it for the flesh of the souls of the dead and I asked my dad what had happened. "You would not believe me if I explained it," he said to me. I told him that I was willing to hear and believe anything about that bit of light that passed over us.

However, I was dumbfounded to find out that Gabriel's light had destroyed all of the souls in the Asphodel except a few as well as all but a few in Tartarus. None in Elysium had looked at the light and thus remained safe from the power of the new god. "If only the transformation of a mortal in a god was a little less glamorous," said a voice we were not expecting to hear again: Gabriel's. Thalia ran up to him until she saw that he was naked but Hades assured him he would fix that instantly by handing him his cloak.

Gabriel gathered a couple things off the ground and I realized these were the treasures of his past. One was the ring he wore when he married Nadine, another was the ring he gave her when he proposed, and the last was the Sky Sword as well as the helmet of his suit of armor. "Oh we'll have to recreate your armor but that won't be a problem," Persephone said before snapping her fingers. Sure enough, plates of gold faded into existence with black underclothes and gloves underneath them.

After that my dad took us back to Camp Half-Blood and told Gabriel that someone wanted to see him when he arrived. At first, I thought he meant Percy but then I realized that having become a god, Zeus would want to see Gabriel. I asked if I could join along and he told me that I would have to for what was going to transpire next. "Gabriel's departure from Earth and ascent to Olympus should not be missed by anyone of his choice, especially if that is a son of Hades," he said before returning to the Underworld with Persephone.

I ran as fast as I could to where the Zeus' Fist was (that was where Persephone teleported Thalia so she could rendezvous with Annabeth and Percy for this) and was out of breath by the time I arrived. Gabriel remained at the base of the mound and Zeus began to ascend to its top. When it arrived, I stood as erect as I could in case he called upon me for anything special. I never had a clue as to something good that would happen next nor had it ever happened to me before in any sort of way from anybody else I've had in my life.


	8. Percy: Zeus' offer, gifts, and goodbye

Percy: Zeus' offer to Gabriel, a brief reunion, and saying goodbye

Zeus ascended down from Olympus on a chariot of gold that was driven by beautiful, white stallions. When he stepped onto the Zeus' Fist, the whole camp felt it but not too many demigods were inquisitive enough to take a peak. Annabeth and I held hands as Gabriel and Zeus made eye contact with each other and recognized each other as brothers for possibly the first time that I ever saw them do so. "Gabriel, you have done what no mortal has ever done before," Zeus began.

None of us dared to interrupt to even ask about the transformation of his son Hercules in case that's not what he meant. "You have slain gods that no other champion could, you have traversed places that normally would make even me soil myself in fear without more than a flinch, and you have done it in the name of a selfless cause. That cause was to protect others from danger and to protect yourself from the guilt of your past. In gratitude, I would like you to come to Olympus with me and become the new God of Time itself and with Eos as your wife, you'll live long and happy with us," he finished.

No one, not even Gabriel knew how to react to such an incredible offer. It was one more incredible than the offer Zeus made to me to be one of my father's generals earlier in the summer. "For so long, I have known neither happiness nor peace even when I attempted to find it in Nadine. And now you offer me the chance at eternity of it?" Gabriel asked.

"If it's what you want and if you feel you deserve it after our service to us. I know I think you deserve it considering the remarkable resume you've built up over the years. Only someone as powerful as you can be the god of Time and safely maintain a balance of life and death," Zeus answered. "Can I at least leave something for each of these great friends I have had in my nieces and nephews?" Gabriel asked.

"Be my guest, just make your decision before Hera starts calling me back to Olympus. I promised her a date soon as I was done talking with you and either making you a god or letting you remain mortal," Zeus assured him. Gabriel chuckled to himself before turning over to us and walking back down to where we were at the base of Zeus' Fist. Nico was the first to receive a gift of gratitude from Gabriel and I would tease him later about being jealous just for the fun.

"Take my helmet, there will be no need of it where I'm going to be and besides you need a helmet to complete a suit of armor. Don't worry, it magically adjusts to fit your head the moment it is put on you," Gabriel said to him. Sure enough, Gabriel's helmet did shrink enough to make a perfect fit for Nico and boy did the guy love him for it. "I'm Gabriel Johnson and I'm gonna kick some ass!" he teased.

We bawled with laughter for a moment then we knew Gabriel needed to move on so we calmed ourselves down to get our gifts. "Percy, for you, I want to give the ring I wore after I married Nadine. It's a part of me like the helmet and you deserve to have something of that sort while I'm on Olympus," he said to me. Then he went to Annabeth and gave her the ring he had put on Nadine's finger and her proposed to her with.

"Since these were both bought with my money, I guess they're linked in way. Wear them and no matter where you two go, you'll have something that not only binds you together but reminds you of me simultaneously," he said to us both. Then Thalia was last and his gift to her was the most surprising of them all. He unstrapped the Sky Sword from his belt and handed it to her with the hilt facing her.

"Since you discovered some of your powers while fighting Prometheus, I though maybe you'd need the Sky Sword until at least you have had learned all you can learn about what you can or can't do as the daughter of Zeus. Besides, your father already controls the Heavens, he doesn't need the Sky Sword for anything except to insure that it keeps that way," Gabriel whispered. "I like it and once I learn the extent of my powers, it'll make for just additional awesomeness," she said, winking as she did so. Gabriel smiled as a small breeze blew, making his cape flow a little bit but not much.

Just then, a tear appeared in Gabriel's eye as he slowly turned away from us and walked back up to Zeus' chariot. "Goodbye my friends, my… family," he said to us all before he stepped into Zeus' chariot and was taken to Olympus by Zeus himself. Annabeth leaned on me and cried on my shoulder at seeing him depart while Thalia just barely managed to hold in her own tears and replace them with a smile. Nico swallowed back his sadness and walked off to meet with his father and Demeter, who were both waiting for him with Persephone.

As for me, I just kept looking at the skies where Zeus had created a trail of light for the chariot before taking Gabriel with him to what was probably a great life for him. Chiron came to us and told us it was time to dine at the dining pavilion. It was then that I noticed that everything was back to normal: no more military installations lying around, no massive towers guarding the walls. The camp looked as though Gabriel had never even entered it, let alone waged a war against Prometheus within its walls.

"Chiron, did you take these great lengths to eradicate Gabriel's memory of the face of the Camp?" I asked him. I knew he was jealous of Gabriel and I had no fear of what he may do to me if I exploited it. "Not eradicate him, make room for a cabin or at least a statue to honor him," he said, which really shocked me. "But you've always been jealous of him, why would you want to honor him now even if he did turn into a god?" I inquired, this setup too suspicious for me.

"Percy, could you stop calling Chiron on his treatment of Gabriel for once? I'm sure he has his reasons for taking these actions," Thalia said. "Yeah, reasons of obligation since it would be an extreme disrespect to Gabriel the _God of Time_ to not do something. Why else do you think you have Cabins to Zeus, Athena, or even Ares for that matter?" Annabeth asked.

"Enough, all of you! I have reasons _besides _obligation as well and it would be best for you to understand that quickly," Chiron shouted. We never talked again after that and since it was forbidden for us to share a table at the same spot, we thought it would be best for our conversation to continue after dinner. But we were surprised to see that people from all cabins were mingling with each other and figured we could continue our conversation about Gabriel at my table. "Should we arrange for his memorial service anytime soon?" Thalia asked.

"Good idea and since you're the one who thought of it, maybe you can lead it," Annabeth said. "I'll do it, I just need to know what we can do as a memorial service or if Chiron will even approve," Thalia replied. "I'm sure he'll approve considering that anything to start worship of the new god sooner will serve to aid him as well as the res of the Camp," I told them. "He'll probably make all the arrangements for us if that's the case and all we have to do is participate in it," Thalia agreed.

It was while we were talking about this service that Nico came to us for the last time that we would ever see him for a long while. He was coming up to say goodbye and I knew that this was certainly not going to be one of those that said he'd be around and see us soon.


	9. Thalia: Thinking of Gabe & service

Thalia: Leading the service and thinking of Gabriel

The very following day, Chiron had a parade built to honor Gabriel's heroic deeds. And who to be at the front of it but the daughter of Zeus herself? That's right, I led this little regiment through the Camp starting from the Big Cabin and ending at the Zeus' Fist when we had already covered every other part of Camp. We even did the Strawberry Fields to be sure everyone saw the parade that honored him. But as the parade began then came to its halt at the end of a two and a half hour trek around the Camp, I thought about everything Gabriel had ever taught me.

Whenever we weren't our separate ways or he wasn't busy talking with Percy, Annabeth, or Nico, he would come to my cabin and ask if he could teach me a trick that only a child of Kronos or Zeus would know. The first few times, he was just teaching me how to summon up lightning like my father could. But the funny thing is that as time went on by, it went from just teaching how to do them to how to control the amount of power I released at one time. These were my thoughts whenever somebody wasn't shouting, "Hey Thalia, I heard you fought Prometheus! How did that go?"

One of my favorite ones was, "I heard Prometheus nearly kicked your ass. Are you considering being a little less feminist?" In reply, I told them to give fighting a Titan a shot sometime and see if they do better. I heard no more comments of the sort after that and I guessed it was one of the Aphrodite kids since they usually never actually liked to fight but would always point out the wrongs in those who do.

But going back to what Gabriel would teach me, in time, I learned how to manipulate the elements of the sky to a minor degree. I even managed to summon a lightning bolt during one of our simulated duels and send Gabriel flying through a nearby wall. He never really taught me much after that since the war really got underway and I guessed that was why he gave me the Sky Sword as his gift to me. Because it would aid my studies in learning how to fight like my father then when I learned what I needed to learn, it would just be my primary weapon in place of the spear I lost during my first duel with him. I smiled because I knew Gabriel was prepared for precisely something like what happened to him last night.

My father had made him a god as he deserved to be and he had chosen to turn down all the power in the universe that he could demand in the form of his position _and _the Sky Sword. He was powerful but he had not chosen to be all-powerful and that told me something about his character I probably would have never figured out had he not done it. Unlike some of the Olympian gods I could name, he was not a power-hungry monkey with an appetite for only the good things that being a major god or goddess can bring. Plus, he had a goddess that he loved who would wait for him in bed every night and wish him luck with his duties every morning for as long as he remained a god or she remained a goddess.

I thought about praying to Eos sometime myself and even hade the Hephaestus kids make a few statues to honor her, Selene, and Helios. They certainly deserved it after bringing Gabriel into our lives with their actions and the way they trained him. But of course, that was after the primary honor that we had to do and that was to Gabriel himself. The statue we made him had him fully armored and wielding a pair of swords like he had been when we first met him against a couple of Prometheus' flunkies including Oceanus on one side. Then, while my thoughts dwelled on him, I put on the track I had dedicated to him. It was the song _You Raise Me Up _as sung by Josh Groban; let me tell you, it couldn't have fit today any better.


	10. Annabeth: A last message from Gabriel

Annabeth: Gabriel returns to me briefly in an Iris-message

That night, I got almost no sleep because I was a little too busy crying. Malcolm had tried his best to cheer me up, even using jokes from my favorite comedy shows to try and help me. However, my Iris fountain began to blink with a message from Olympus itself. I had Malcolm patch it through and to my surprise, as well as eternal delight, Gabriel was on the other side.

"Hey Annabeth, thought I'd talk with you briefly before I get busy in my new duties as the god of time," he said. "A conversation with you is always welcomed at this point," I told him. He smiled and let us in on the fact that he was sharing living space with Eos like I would have imagined. "Well I got some good news and some bad news for you, what do you want to hear first?" he asked me.

"I don't care, considering it makes no difference since I'm going to hear both either way," I told him. "Hmm, good answer and I guess that shall be rewarded with the good news first. Good news is, I already have a throne built for me that when you come into the throne room, faces Zeus' throne directly," he said. "Whoa, sounds like Zeus wants to be able to tell the time just be looking at your face or he really mistrusts you," I teased him.

"Ha ha ha ha but unfortunately, that's where the bad news comes in. I attacked Hera today when she tried to coo me into forgetting about what she did to me while I was a mortal. I even used some of my new powers as the God of Time to get away with it too since I managed to significantly slow down Zeus and everyone else around me. So you can guess about how trusting he is of me with the power to control time now," he explained to me.

"Oh boy, you've infuriated the King of Olympus himself by attacking his wife! How do you live with yourself?" I teased. "Shut up, he hasn't done much yet because he knows I'm his brother and he knows I'm also Hera's brother. Not to mention, I was given probably one of if not the greatest power in the universe. At my whim, the Fates could lose their power to weave the threads because they wouldn't know how much time has passed since a person was born nor would Thanatos be able to come to collect," Gabriel said to us.

"You have a great power Gabriel, use it responsibly. Remember the old saying?" I asked him. "I know, 'With great power comes great responsibility'. I'll be sure to use it for responsible purposes in the future considering I've also been made the God of Justice itself," he answered.

"Hmm, Time _and _Justice eh? You're unstoppable now!" I said to him. "I guess I am but Annabeth, I wanted to say something in addition to all of that. Watch Chiron, he's very jealous of me because I've done more in just a few years of my life than he has in all the three thousand that he's been around. He'll be looking for a way to get back at me and he'll try to hide his jealousy very well; I'm counting on you to call him on it when you can," he said.

"I swear on the River Styx that I will do my best to do that as much as I can and when I can. You are the best uncle a girl like me could ever ask for and I wouldn't trade you even for him," I told him. "Thank you Annabeth, I knew you could be trusted with your first assignment from me in my reign as a god," he said with a smile. "Do you also want me to make sure Percy doesn't make a fool or klutz of himself?" I asked.

"He's your boyfriend, do that if for yourself if you want to. Got to go now, just wanted to talk with you briefly," he answered. I said goodbye and just like that he was gone; I never saw him again after that brief message through Iris' rainbow network.


	11. Percy: Looking to new horizons

Percy: Looking at the horizon to the new day and the new age of gods and men

I looked up to the skies because I knew that Gabriel was up there right now. With the knowledge that Gabriel was up there now and watching over the universe's greatest power was in itself, a great feeling. My review of these last two months can only be described as nothing short of a thrill ride from the gods. From the time I sensed that disturbance that Chiron explained as being Gabriel all the way to now, there had been nothing but action of all sorts.

Some of it was good and some of it would be regretted by all of us for as long as we lived. But either way, we felt very proud of ourselves because we had at last finished off the Titans and seen to it that their threat never rose to challenge us again. We had laid waste to a leader who had tried to break my spirit earlier in the summer before I killed Khronos (that's right, I spelled the old God of Time's name correctly). Lastly, we had saved Olympus itself from this threat to its existence that had first shown its face a few years ago when Atlas tried to help the Titans rise up more quickly.

I went to the dining pavilion since I knew no one would be there and decided that my table there would be the best place to think about the past privately. I remembered my mother's little letter and I also remembered that I needed to send her an Iris-message. Quickly, I went to the nearby fountain and put in a drachma to get a message going to her apartment. "Hello Percy?" my mother said.

"Hey mom, how are you doing?" I asked. "I'm doing great, your stepdad Paul took me to see this really funny movie today. I didn't really care to get the title because I was laughing so hard that when I got out of the theater, I kind of threw up on Paul," she answered. "Glad to hear you had a good time mom, just thought I'd talk to you for a bit and start by telling you I'll be back in time for school," I told her.

"Percy, I'm so glad to hear that! How's Annabeth doing by the way, did I scare her off you the last time I saw her?" she asked. "No mom, she and I are still going strong but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. Mom, in your time dealing with the Olympians, have you ever known a warrior of theirs by the name of Gabriel Johnson?" I asked her.

"Your father used to mention him once or twice as his half-brother so I know of him, why?" she answered. "Well for one thing, it's true that he's my dad's half-brother by Kronos and for another, he's replaced his dad as the god of time," I told her. I figured she didn't need to know that Khronos was the real god of time and Cronus was just the Lord of the Titans. Especially since Eos told me never to tell anyone, not even Gabriel, about the truth of it all.

"That's incredible! How was that even possible for him?" my mother asked. "Well, the gods needed somebody to watch over Time itself and they figured that since Gabriel had earned his stripes, he would be worthy of being a god. So they made him the God of Time after Zeus anointed him as one of them just yesterday," I explained.

"That is all very wonderful Percy but I have to go now, Paul's calling me over for some more lessons in sculpting. Love you very much and hope to see you for Christmas!" she said before I lost her image. And just like that I was alone again to think about all that had transpired though now, I was very glad I had talked with my mom and gotten that off my chest. Then the oddest thing that ever happened to me arrived in the form of Annabeth who also came to think but found me instead.

Okay, so she wasn't so unusual but here's what is: she was wearing the skimpiest little blue bikini that I had ever seen her wear in my life. "Oh I didn't mean for you to see me looking like this, I just came back from a little swim at the lake," she said. "Hope that went well for you," I said. "Something wrong?" she asked.

"No nothing's wrong, it's just that I've been thinking about all that's happened to us since Gabriel arrived. It was a very interesting twist in Fate considering that I had plans that were very boring in comparison," I replied to her. "I had similar plans too but when I told my Dad I couldn't come down until the matter with Gabriel was resolved, I never would have guessed it would take this long," she agreed. "I truly don't know why but somehow, that bikini just looks really good on you," I said after we had a short pause.

"Oh really? Well, why don't you come with me to our favorite honeymooning spot and maybe you can see if I look better without it," she said, smiling at me and kissing my cheek after she said that. "Would Malcolm mind you being there with me when you said you'd be swimming?" I asked. "He already knows I was planning on looking for you when I was done swimming so no worries," she answered.

Then she jogged a little ways toward our favorite spot to sit down and just smooch. "Hey wait for me," I called out to her. "No way Seaweed Brain, this time you're earning the right to bonk me again," she teased. "Oh considering that I have the Curse of Achilles on my side, which helps increase my stamina, I will," I replied.

We ran as fast as our feet could carry us until I was right next to Annabeth and we just ran side by side until we reached our little reservation by Long Island Sound. Both of us were panting by the time we arrived but it didn't matter. "I hope you saved some of that energy for me," Annabeth whispered seductively before undoing both her top and bottom bikini straps. "Oh you have no idea," I whispered back as I undid my own clothes.

Soon, I too was naked although she had long since started to whistle while waiting for me. "About time you got undressed," she said with a giggle when she finally noticed I was done. Quickly, I lied down next to her, brought my hands to her waist, and brought her close to my body. After that everything else melted away as our bodies united once again and once we secured there was no one else around, the lustful thrusting of both our bodies began.


End file.
